- Getting rid of the smoke smell from your fireplace

Dear Shell,

Our house has two fireplaces one up and one down. When we have a fire in the fireplace upstairs we get a strong smell of smoke down. I have the damper closed and actually plugged with an insulating mat but still the smell gets through. What do I try next ?

Thanks, Jay

Dear Jay,

This is called backdrafting and is caused by an imbalance of air inside your home. This will happen more on low-pressure days (i.e. raining dull overcast days). When you have your one fireplace burning the air is passing up the chimney carrying smoke and gases while the make up air for inside your home is coming down the other flue. Insulation and the closed damper will not stop this. You should consider installing a combustion air damper in your upper fireplace available from Build It Marketing (call 1-888-266-8806) and also installing a Draft Stopper in the lower fireplace.